Interview with Harold Hubble

Interviewee: Harold L. Hubble (HH)
Interviewer: Doug Washburn (DW)
Hello, this is Doug Washburn for the Harford County Public Library. Today is 16 June 2004, and I am with the Harford Living Treasure, Harold Hubble of Bel Air, the Chaplain at the Oak Grove Baptist Church in Fountain Green where we are doing our taping today. Chaplain Hubble has been very active and is still very active in the Harford County community. Veronica Chenowith of the Harford County Council made the nomination.
DW Chaplain Hubble, welcome.
HH Thank you.
DW Well, we always like to start at the beginning. Where were you born and when?
HH I was born on June 5, 1932, in Darlington, Maryland. My parents came up from Virginia during the late '30s because of depression of jobs. Moved to Maryland in 1932. I was born in Darlington, as I said, and then they moved back for a year and then came back, I guess the latter part of, early part of 1933, and have been in Maryland all our lives since then. I grew up on a farm, my father was a farmer. Grew up in Bel Air on Maulsby Street when I was about four to five. My father worked for Central Motors at that time, which is now Plaza Ford. And then we moved to Glenville on a cattle farm that was owned by Mr. and Mrs. James Whitalll. He was the farm manager there and managed all the raising of crops and everything. We moved there when I was about five and a half. That following fall I began school at the Churchville Elementary. I attended there from first grade through the seventh grade. Prior to that, I guess I've been working ever since I was in the third grade. I used to pull a lot of, thin a lot of corn for my father and pull a lot of yellow top – is what grew up in the alfalfa. We pulled the yellow top out so it would be more pure. Then, of course, during the second World War, most of the men had gone for the service and there was Mr. Joseph Butt who had a canning house there in Glenville, Maryland, and he raised asparagus and green beans and peaches and tomatoes and because there was no help – if you know anything about asparagus – you cut it completely down the day, the next day it's up ready again. It grows all over night. But I would go up there – me and another few of the fellas that grew up in, around Glenville. We'd go up there at daybreak and we would cut till about eight o'clock. We'd cut about two, two and a half hours and then he would, we'd all pile in his farm truck just like we were. I'm sure we smelled good. [Laughter] Then attended, went to, as I was in third grade at that time because I was about nine, and we did that for, until the asparagus would get over and then I picked many, many pounds of beans. I would get, I believe, about three cents a pound for beans, and then he would go into Baltimore and bring out a lot of the, I guess you'd call them migrant workers then, and of course, they would pick fields; but he hired a lot of us young kids around the area. And then once the beans got out, then we'd pick peaches. Now I got, I think I got, thirteen cents a basket. And I would decide [Laughter] how much money I wanted to make that day because I would pick from the beginning and get my quota of what money I wanted; and I wouldn't eat a peach because once I started eating one, I think I would eat one and pick one, eat one, pick one. So I did that all through my elementary grades. He was just really a fine guy. So I attended Churchville from first grade to seventh grade. The principal was Tom Hackett. My first grade teacher was a Mrs. Tharpe. Then after I graduated from Churchville – they had a little graduation, you know. White pants, white shirts, you know – then I started going to Bel Air High School. We only had basically three schools. We had Bel Air High School, Havre de Grace High School, Aberdeen High School. Then we had Central Consolidated, which was a high school for black people. So the bus would pick us up, the elementary bus would pick us up and take us to Churchville school; and then a Mr. Mark Hopkins who owned buses would come and pick us up at Churchville, take us to Bel Air High School, and then after school was over he would take us back to Churchville. We'd get a bus from Churchville Elementary to take us to our respective homes. And I was the last eleven-year system, 1949, and in 1950, I guess they had maybe ten or twelve people who either had got set back a year or didn't, or failed a year, and so 1951 was the first graduating class. I went to the Bel Air High School, which is torn down now and is where the Bel Air Elementary School is now on – in Bel Air, I can't think of the street, there's a [missing dialogue] there…
DW Lee Street?
HH No, no. Lee Street, well, Lee Street is the one going up there by the…the one down by, comes out from the Police Department.
DW That's Lee.
HH Lee Street.
DW That's Lee.
HH And they tore that school down. In 1950, the people started going to Bel Air High School, and that was when they used the Knightly School there for a while and then they finally tore it down and built the existing Bel Air Elementary School.
I started, that was my account as I was growing up. And then 1947, I was fourteen and I started working for The Hub Department Store in Bel Air, which was owned by a Jewish family, the Rosenberg family, and worked there after – I would go in after school on Friday, and I would work from two to nine and then I stayed all night. My sister lived in Bel Air. She married into the Reedy's, Hayden Reedy, who now the place is Major's Choice and his daddy owned Major's Choice and farmed it until – I'm not sure when Major's Choice was built. Anyway, I would stay all night with my sister and then work – go in at nine and I could only work till seven because until you were sixteen you couldn't work after seven o'clock. So, I did that until I became sixteen – graduated. I was 16 on June 5, and we graduated June 7. So I was just, had just turned 16. Started as a stock boy, washing windows, sweeping the sidewalks. Mr. Rosenberg had a couple of apartment complexes. One was known as the Chesney Building, which Clark Turner remoldeled, and then the other was called the Germantown. I would go over and clean the halls, and so I did that all the time I was working part time. Then the farm where my father worked was sold to Peter Jay whose son still owns – it was called Windmill Hill there at Glenville – and Mr. Jay raised and bred racehorses and he offered me a job to be a jockey because I was fairly small then. But I was working at The Hub and I thought maybe that wasn't what I wanted to do for my life. So I told him I appreciated the offer, but I was staying at The Hub. So I stayed at The Hub and got started as a stock boy, began working on the floor as a salesman, and I resigned in 1974 as a manager and buyer of men's and boys' clothing. So I went from sweeping floors to management and in 1974, I resigned.
To back up now, to kind of my boyhood, my young adulthood, of course, at that time Route 22 was really just a two lane road, and I'm not sure exactly when they widened Churchville Road. I know I was out of school, so it had to be 1950 – 51. I'm not sure on that because I know we used to have to run around by Creswell – Carsins Run – Creswell! and come into Bel Air that way. And I saw houses that were facing the road turned. We have one now still down there that was turned sideways so the road could go through. And growing up as an elementary young man, I mean we had snows that would come the last of October, November; the snow would stay on. You never saw the ground really till about March when it would start to warm up. You never had a road salted, so we could sled on the main road because it would be packed just like a hard rock, you know. So we used to sleigh ride on the road because there was really not a lot of traffic. [Laughter] So that's kind of what we did. And then, of course, 19--, I believe 1958, was when we had the really large snow and I was back in…
DW Glenville.
HH And Gene Umbarger – we graduated together – and stayed friends, he came over on a, I believe, a Farm All tractor through the fields and picked me up and took me to Churchville because the roads were open from Bel Air to Churchville. And my brother John, who was also employed at The Hub, picked me up and then worked all the time while school was out and everything. So, you know, I remember the roads back in Glenville, they would just fill completely full. There would be eight or ten foot drifts and they'd be like that maybe a week or ten days before they ever got snow plows in there. [Laughter] So, we got a lot of snow, a lot of fun.
Grew up. Did a lot of fishing. My father, we used to go down to Rock Run, and that's when they would dip for herring and it was nothing for us to dip a thousand fifteen herrings in one night. Of course, fish don't run like that anymore. There would be a multitude of people dipping so we would catch a thousand. I mean, they were just, you know, you could almost walk on them. So I did a lot of fishing growing up as a young fella. My father, we used to go up to, he'd take me up to Dover, Delaware, and Lewes, Delaware, and we'd go out deep sea fishing and that was when you could go for all day for about $65. Now I think it's three hundred and some dollars per three hours. So the change…and remembering gas prices since we – it certainly is prevalent on our mind today. Many times, my father, we'd stop there at Churchville at the little Sunoco station owned by Kyle Andrews and you bought five gallons for a dollar. And you could buy that all day long, you know. And then, of course, during the war, nylon stockings were scarce, sugar was scarce, and, of course, you had a little sticker on your car like A, P, B, C, I believe, and if you were a farmer, I think you got C. You got a little more gas because of being a farmer, but the average person just got an A sticker and they were allotted so much gas per month, I believe. So, my daddy, we had a '39 Ford and we came to Bel Air once a week. I went to the movies for about 13 cents or 25 cents a ticket. My mom did her grocery shopping. They saw their friends and that was a yearly thing and a weekly, yearly thing that we went to Bel Air once a week. They used to have there at the Bel Air Theater now, which is still there, the building is still there, but they used to have "serials", they used to call them. They were like western serials, you know, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hop-a-long Cassidy, and they would have a movie on Monday night but the serial would be continued. And my daddy took me every Monday night to the movies to…there was always usually a western but they always had a serial. So I look back and they were just some of the nice memories. At that time, because of segregation, our black friends had to go down the alley, up the steps, and sit in the balcony. They couldn't sit with us, you know, I look back now and I thought that was so unfair, but that was what we were used to.
My mother – Mr. Whitall had a maid whose name was Alberta Presbury and they got to be good friends. She would come over and they'd visit with each other; and I tell this, it's kind of funny because I was only about six or seven, and they used to call Brazil nuts "nigger toes." So, I'm there and I came out on the porch where my mom and Ms. Presbury were sitting and I said, "Hey, Mom, can I have some, can I have a nigger toe?" Well, my mother could have went through the crack if there'd been a crack there. Alberta was a very kind and very beautiful black lady and she said, "Ms. Hubble, that's ok. I know it was no put-down." It was just something that we did, you know. And mostly, we didn't have all the fast food restaurants. We had Reuben's Drive-In, which was THE place. Reuben Leftridge, who was a very active member here at the Oak Grove Baptist Church, he and Virginia. But that was where you took your dates and he was famous for the suzy-q, which was the potato he should have patented – he never did – and thick chocolate milkshakes. He had a drive-in before – you see sometimes in movies of the fifties – where the gals were on roller skates, and they did that at Reuben's. So that was kind of our, the only recreation that we really had was Reuben's Drive-In. That's where we met and took our dates, and for less than a dollar you could eat, two of you, and with a hamburger and milkshake and suzy-q's. And then they had Johnny's Roller Skating Rink up at Poplar Grove. I got my first car when I was sixteen, bought my first car. It was a 1949 Ford, paid $2400 for it. At that time you had to pay a third down, and I had saved $800 for my third down and that was my first car, a four-door Ford that I bought myself. I've always said that …and I had friends who would, you know, had an old car and then they would step up and then get a little better car and then finally get a new car. And I've always said I don't think I ever appreciated a new car because I bought a new car, the first car I owned was a new car. I think that takes away from it. I mean, I enjoyed my car.
I never grew up in church. My mother was a Christian, went to church back down in the south. The only time my father went to church, I guess, down there was when, that's kind of where you found your girls and dated the girls, you know. But my mom said she really would like to go to church, and so I got my new car in '49 and just stopped by Oak Grove Baptist Church and started attending Oak Grove. Became the first ordained deacon who was single. They had never ordained a single man, and I was ordained as a single man and served active to 1974. And I'll tell you about that. It's kind of where I changed my life vocation. So I was very involved in church and I worked six nights at the store, I mean six days and three nights; and then of course, I was involved in church. Held every committee chair position in a Baptist church and that's quite a few different committees. Then in 1974, we had two daughters. My wife is named Gerry and our daughters, Karen and Alana. I was working about 56 hours a week, a tax assessor came opening, and I applied for a tax assessor under the County Executive Anderson, Charles Anderson. I took my test and they hired about four or five tax assessors, and passed the test and everything but did not get the job. Well, while this was happening, my Pastor, Reverend Lewis McDonald, came into the store and I said, "I would like for you to pray something with me about – the Lord may want me to die here at the church but I feel like that I might work as tax assessor, so he said, "Do you mean …", (I was 42 then.) He said, "Do you mean you would leave The Hub store?" I said, "Yea, but maybe I'm not supposed to but this is what I've done." He said, "Well, for a long time I thought of a position and your name has come to me many, many times and the title is Minister of Lay Evangelism, Church Administrator." And I said to him, I said, "Well, gee, it's really a compliment," but I mean, I didn't have college, or any seminary training. And he said, "Basically, what you would be doing, you have the skills and you have people relationship." And so we started talking about it, and the week before the pastor was to bring my name to the church, Mr. Anderson called and said, "Harold, we're going to hire one more tax assessor. I know you applied, but I need to know by the next morning if you want the position." Well, I was kind of involved and so I called my Pastor. Gerry, my wife, and I went out and told him what happened and he said, "Well, you know I can't tell you, you need to make your own decision. I still think the Lord is leading you into this position." So I called back and I told Mr. Anderson that I really appreciated it but it really was the wrong time to leave the store. We'd been right in the busy season and I was there for 28 years, and I wouldn't have done that to my boss. So I turned him down and so they brought my name – Reverend McDonald shared with the deacons and the personnel committee that he had a position in mind, he had a man in mind, and, of course, they were saying, "Well, who is he? What's his education? What's his background?" And Reverend McDonald said, "Well, I can't share that with you right now because of a situation." So they brought my name the first of March in 1974, the church voted on me; and we had about three hundred that evening – we had about 304, I think. And I had three hundred positive votes. Four people had come to me later that next day and said, "I voted against you but not against you as a person but didn't feel like we needed the position." So I accepted. I came on April Fool's Day, 1974, and I tell them it's been a joke ever since. [Laughter] So that's where I went from the retail business to where I am today.
During the time that I was at The Hub, I was very active in the Chamber of Commerce. I was active in Aberdeen. We had a store in Aberdeen. When I say "we" it was the Rosenberg's. We had a store in Aberdeen, we had one on Main Street in Bel Air plus an Annex, plus they had two stores over in Westminster and got very involved in Chamber of Commerce and the Christmas activities of the season. And just really…I guess, about two years after I decided I would go to The Hub, I also thought maybe I want to go to the Proving Grounds. So I went over and applied for a job at the Proving Grounds and got the job. And I was making $40 a week at The Hub for six days and three nights, 60 plus hours. And I came back, told my boss Mr. Rosenberg that I thought that I was going to quit because I had gotten a job at the Proving Grounds and he said, "Well, what?" I said, "Well, first place it's 38 hours and I'm working 60, you know, and instead of making $40 a week, I was going to make $45 but I was only working about 38 hours, you know." And he said, "Well, I really hate to see you go but I would never, you know, hold anybody back. I'll give you a ten dollar raise." So he told me he would give me $50 if I chose to stay. Went home, talked to my parents, and my parents said, "Harold, this is one time you're going to have to make your own decision. If we tell you to go and you dread going to the Proving Ground, then you'll say, 'See? If you hadn't told me I wouldn't have taken that job,' and if we tell you to stay at The Hub, and you become miserable and you'd say, 'Well, if you hadn't done that…'" So the moral of the story, I chose to stay in the retail business and do not regret it because I learned a lot, I grew a lot, was given a lot of opportunity. Mr. Rosenberg was a fine, Jewish man, very religious in his own faith, and was a gentleman from the word "go." And I learned early in that lifestyle and I try to do that to this day, that if you treat people the way you like to be treated, you won't have much trouble in life. And I have always tried to treat people the way I want to be. I don't like to be treated rudely, so I don't treat people rudely. So that's kind of in my work relationship.
I was on a lot of different committees in the Southern Baptist Church. We're the largest protestant denomination in the world. But I got very active in, I was on the Board of Directors for Baptist Home of Maryland, I was on the Board for the Commission on Aging here in Bel Air when the committees at that time kind of had a little bit, a little clout. They kind of, you know, had a little money in the purse and…later the committees became advisory committees and basically took all the power as far as we had. At the Commission on Aging, we had a little budget and we could kind of fire and hire and spend that money. But we didn't know how to write contracts so…Habern Freeman, and he made all these committees we have today advisory committees. Basically, they really don't have any clout far as – all we do is advisory. I served as advisory on the committee of John Archer; and like I said, I was on Commission on Aging for two or three terms and really just got involved in my church my lifestyle with the items that I do.
Then in 19…., Bob Coomes was the Sheriff of Harford County and he brought on four chaplains, and he asked me to be on of the chaplains for the Harford County Sheriff's office, which I serve today. And basically, I worked with all people. I do death notifications, and sometimes if there are suicides, or unattended deaths, they call me out. And then, I really enjoyed the chaplaincy. At that time the Bel Air Police Department did not have a chaplain, and I came and was the first chaplain for the Bel Air Police Department. Also, the EOC (which is 9-1-1), never had a chaplain and at that time, Jim Terrell was the director of the EOC, and he asked me if I would be a lead chaplain for that so, this is my work… and they all kind of tie together. It's been a great ministry because, basically, when you go to an unattended death or suicide or hospital visit in these different areas, there are hurting people. And so, the Lord really has given me an opportunity to minister to hurting people. And I think, if I have a gift, it is people. I am very comfortable. I'm sure I don't always use the right English, but I can feel just as comfortable sitting with the hierarchy of a big business as a homeless person. I am not intimidated like that, and I feel very comfortable being able to talk to people like that. I do a lot of funerals. Last year I had 96 funerals because dealing with the older people and then of course, being born and raised in Harford County, I know so many people. Being at The Hub Store for 28 years, you just get to know a lot of people and, even if you don't know them, they know you. I would say that I'll do 50 percent of my funerals outside the walls of our church. But I would say that 98 percent of those funerals, when I got there, they knew me or I knew them, somehow. So it's really been a very blessed ministry.
I began the first Senior Adult Ministry in the Maryland-Delaware Convention before books were ever written. I started two groups. One was called "The Keenagers." We'd meet monthly and we've done all types of trips. And then I realized that we were having a lot of widows and I started another group called the Pacesetters. It would run between 60 and 70 women here that are all widows and from about 16 or 17 different churches. Most everybody that comes has their own spiritual walk. It may be Methodist, it may be Mormon, it could be Jehovah Witness, it can be Catholic, but they don't have that type of support. And with that group we do a monthly trip. Usually, the third Saturday we go somewhere. I do a major trip with the seniors. I've been to Alaska, Nashville, Hawaii, Branson. I'm doing a trip to Branson in November. We'll be taking about 57…and it's really a ministry because I've taken people who are in wheelchairs, or taken people who would never, never go on a trip like this because they would be afraid to do it by themselves. And I coordinate everything. All they have to be is on time. [Laughter] So, I'm doing Branson in November. In 2005, I'll be taking a group to Hawaii. I've done that; I've been to Hawaii about eight times. A lovely place to go. I love Hawaii. So, in my work on staff here, I became a consultant for Senior Adult Ministry for the Southern Baptist Convention, which is nationwide. I've led conferences all up and down the seaboard, about eight or ten different states – in other words, how to start a Senior Adult Ministry. I go to some of the conventions or associations or a local church. Year before last, I was down in Louisiana for five days, and I went to five different churches sharing how to start a senior adult ministry in the church. What we're having now is, for instance, because of baby boomers coming of age, things that we did twenty years ago with seniors, well, it's just not fitting for boomers today, so we have to change our activities. Just last week, we had thirty some, I'd say, boomers, went on a golfing outing for the day. So we're apt to change some of our activities to reach the younger generation.
DW Excellent, excellent. Let me back you up a little bit.
HH Ok. I know I kinda wandered but it's…
DW That's fine. That's a real good talk of your life. Actually, let's flip the tape over.
HH Ok.
DW Ok.
End of Side One
DW So, like I talked to you at the beginning, we do like to concentrate on the Harford County history. How about old Churchville? Do you remember anything other than working at the cannery?
HH Well…
DW Some of the old stores there….
HH In Glenville, we had a store right down at the end of Glenville Road, and it was owned by a Mr. and Mrs. Reese. And there was an older couple who ran that store. And for recreation, there'd be about eight or ten of us boys. We were on bicycles, and we would go down there and buy our candy but we were always scared to death because they were old [Laughter] at that time. So we were always kind of scared to go in there because we were afraid they were gonna do something to us. But you know what's interesting as an eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve year old boy riding bicycles, we rode all over Harkins, Glenville, and Level and Deer Creek, but what was so interesting is that as a boy, as a child, hills, like going down Glenville hill, was, I mean it was such a big hill. And now, it's not that big. I remember my first grade teacher, Mrs. Tharpe, and I thought she was, just she was a tall woman, you know, and such a, of course, then you know you're small and I met her about 25 years later, and hadn't seen her for about 25 or 30 years and I looked at her, you know, she wasn't so big. [Laughter] But that's how you see it as a child. Glenville, so that was kind of Glenville. There was no, you go back now there's umpteen different type of houses, but essentially Glenville had three post offices – our post office, Havre de Grace, then down at Glenville and one out at Deer Creek, the road there by Deer Creek was Aberdeen, and then we had Churchville. Within a three mile radius we had about three different post offices. And of course, it was all rural delivered. Tell a funny thing about postmen. Working at The Hub, we put out about two circulars a year, not like we do today, and we never got a circular from the store. And I said, "Mr. Rosenberg, I don't understand it," because I used to take them up to mail at the Bel Air post office. So I told Mr. Rosenberg and so he called the Havre de Grace postmaster and said, "You know, one of my employees works here and he lives down at Glenville and we do about two circulars. He never gets a circular. What's going on?" Come to find out was, if we had first class mail, we'd get a circular. The postman would stop. But if we didn't have first class mail, he drove on by. [Laughter] So after that, we got everything. They used to do that. In other words, if you didn't have because, you know, it was on time, so if it was all second and third class mail, he just went on by. At that time you didn't get a lot of bills and things like we do today. [Laughter] So that was interesting. And then, Churchville, of course, where the Enroy store is now, there was a building and Vonley Day was a barber and was right in the Y and that's where I used to come and get my hair cut. You had the creamery up 136, just up from Churchville Presbyterian Church where the farmers used to, there'd be people who would pick up the cans at the end of your lane and then they would take all those cans up to the creamery and they would whatever they do at a creamery is the process of milk and make butter, you know. So I remember that and then, of course, where the Crown, maybe it's a Crown station, was an apartment house; was owned by Mrs. O. M. Richardson. And she was a very active member in our church. Then you had Cole's Store there where the farm equipment store is there but you went in, it was like a hardware store. They sold all types of items for a farm and of course, there was saddle shop in there but now I'm not sure what's in there. So that was there and then, we had where the High's store is now was a, right between the Presbyterian church where they had there like a day building like a for day school, there was a big ole house there and that's where the Church Operator, telephone operator … was interesting back then you never heard of private lines. You would have a line and there would be ten or twelve families on this one line, and if you picked up and was talking, more than likely, eleven other people were listening to the conversation. So that's kind of what we grew up with. Remember we didn't get a TV, I guess I was thirteen or fourteen when we got our first TV. And it was a Muntz TV, and it was a used one and had a little ten-inch screen, but that was the thing, you know, to watch TV. So we went from the ten-inch to what we have today. Then Chur… go ahead, sir.
DW Well, I was going to say, I know I always heard that the 155 from Churchville to Havre de Grace was always the first paved road in the county. Do you remember that?
HH Ok. It was always, since I have known, it was a paved road. Even Glenville was a paved road when we moved there in '39; but they were very narrow and, of course, like I said, Route 22 was just a little two lane with a stripe in the middle with a tar and chip road. And, of course, like Glenville, I think every year they would tar and chip the road, you know. [Laughter] And they just did the bumps, [Laughter] each bump got a little bigger, you know. It never was really smooth like it is today. So, that and then we had Cole's store, and Mr. … can't remember, had a garage just down from 136, off of 22, but that was kind of Churchville. I mean, I know that many times a friend of mine would, there was a guy, a gentleman, that worked with Harford Mutual and in our senior year he had a little sports car, and he would pick us up every morning and take us to Bel Air High School which was on Gordon Street. And we did that for years. But that's kind of what we, you know, and our activities of recreation was skating, and going to the movies once in a while, and of course, the Bel Air Drive-In, I mean the Churchville Drive-In, which is still the only one I think now left in the state of Maryland, I believe. I remember that was built and then, of course, we had a drive-in in Aberdeen where the McDonald's is about now. There was a curvy road and the drive-in sat up on the hill there. So I remember when that was there and of course, it was torn down and then, of course, Churchville Drive-In is still active.
DW Three M or something, it's called. Yea.
HH Yea.
DW How about, well, you worked in Bel Air a lot of years. Richardson's Drugstore…?
HH Ok. Yea. I worked and I remember when working at the store we had the jail. The house was across from where the Courthouse is and had a yard and they had park benches and that's where everybody sat on Saturday getting all their information and Sheriff Fulker was the Sheriff at that time, had three deputies, himself …The jail was behind the house.
DW Now this is across the road from the courthouse.
HH Where First Virginia Bank is. That part in there. Across from the courthouse where the, basically, the office where the Sheriff is. If you're going south on Main Street, it's on the left, across and then, of course, there was a big white house there, and that's where Sheriff and Mrs. Fulker lived. She cooked for the inmates and they had three deputies: Deputy James, Carr, and Sheriff Fulker. They wore plain clothes, I mean, they didn't even… I remember he died, Sheriff Fulker died very suddenly and I remember that was traumatic because he had been sheriff for some time. That's when Sheriff Kunkel who worked nights as a deputy and he became sheriff and was sheriff for quite a few years. And, of course, we've had our changes in sheriff, but had the jail there right in behind the house where they have some of their office now. The Courthouse had always basically been there. Across down from the Courthouse going south on Main Street, the opposite way, which is one-way now, you had Courtland Hardware…
DW Right.
HH and that's there between Courtland Street and the office building and Bond Boarman's. Boyd & Fulford's was there and, of course, Gene Street worked there and then finally became the owner, and they had a fountain there where you could go and get your sandwich and get your chocolate cokes and cherry cokes…
DW Spirit's still there but the fountain's gone…[Laughter]
HH …but the fountain's gone. And then of course, Richardson's Drugstore down where now it's foot doctors in there. Of course, that had a fountain, and then at Woolworth's where the …
DW Surveyors.
HH …the surveyors are, that was Woolworth and they had a fountain in there. And a salesman would come to call upon a store and would want to know where can we eat. Well, you had a five and ten, we had no motels, and it was really, the closest motel was down around Edgewood. There was one in Kingsville. So we never had the…so salesmen would always want to take you out to eat, you know, so we'd go to Woolworth's for our lunch, because there just wasn't any restaurants.
DW Now you were talking about Reuben's earlier. Now Del Haven was right there. Was that gone by then?
HH No. Del Haven had the cabins there and had the pool, and then right across a little creek was Reuben's Drive-In. And John Wilson who is still living, who owns Del Plaza, operated the Del Haven Restaurant. Oh, I ate in there many, many times. So that was that place, and Reuben's, and then on up was Brownie's who opened Brownie's Log Cabin which is now… used to be Friar Tuck's. I don't know who's in there now. So Main Street is really…I remember on Pennsylvania right there where used to be Bata Shoe Company. You would go around and walk down the sidewalk and was Magness Meat Market, who's son was Town Manager, worked for the Town. And then on past that was Kroh's where the Stinchcomb brothers owned that; and then of course we had the Odd Fellows Hall, which is still there. And then most of the houses – and then I remember Kenmore Inn, A Yew Tree Inn. Yew Tree was up at where Harford Mutual is now, I believe, and Kenmore Inn was down where the pub is. It used to be Safeway in that area right across from the…
DW Looney's.
HH Looney's, right. So, that was your two inns and then where the bank, Forest Hill Bank is, up across from the post office, there was a couple of ladies had, I forget their name, but they had boarding houses where you could go and rent a room and they fed you, I mean supplied the meals for you. So, all that's gone now, you know. Of course, you've got the banks and, of course, remember the Bel Air post office for years, and then they remodeled the Bel Air post office and then moved it down in back of the mall.
DW That's now the Historical Society.
HH Historical Society, right.
DW Now was, wasn't there an old hotel…
HH Vaughn Hotel and this was when we had the fire in Bel Air. They had the Vaughn Hotel, they had Mike Smithson's Barber Shop under it, and then they had what they called "The Hole," which was a poolroom. It was called The Hole, that's where it was.
DW Well, that was Preston's Stationary.
HH Right. Preston's on the corner…Vaughn Hotel was on top, right down from Preston's was Mike Smithson's Barber Shop, who later Monty Hudler took over, and then they had The Hole, they had the restaurant, had a little A & P, had Boyd & Fulford's, had Walker's 5 & 10, which became The Hub Store, and The Hub was those three buildings there, and right beside was so was the Boyd & Fulford's, Hub – basically three departments in there, Hirsch's Men's Store, which is still here, and Woolworth, Bata Shoe Company, and then you had the street there and it was Richardson's Drug Store, Copple's Shoe Store, and Ryser's Store right beside where the theater is now. And then, of course, across from us was the Carbon-Price Building, which became The Hub Annex which was a … and then beside them was Getz's Department Store, where Legg Mason now is was The Corner Restaurant and then you had Pano's, a little food, hamburger joint – sold beer, and next to that was the Cut Rate Store, and then next to that now it was a private house owned by a couple of ladies. And in back of that was the, they had a feed store, and the man sold eggs where the parking lot is now for the B&B Bank or B&T Bank, whatever it is.
DW Oh, M & T.
HH And that was all a…I can't think of the man's name but it'll come to me. So, and, of course, across there was Motor Sales…
DW Right.
HH Motor Sales and then you had on the corner there, which used to be… finally became C-Mart Store, and then they moved that up to Forest Hill.
DW And that was Polan's before…
HH Right, Polan's.
DW Before it was C-Mart.
HH Good, yes, Polan's, right.
DW Ok. Now was that…but that was Polan's when you were growing up…
HH [missing dialogue]
DW [missing dialogue]
HH Well, and see where, then where the, you had the, American Restaurant and you had Masonic Temple, and that's all torn down and became the Courthouse.
DW The Courthouse.
HH Yea, we had a young fella who was with the DeMolay and they had a recognition and I went over – that used to be the Masonic and then, of course, you had Dr. Little who was a dentist who had his office in that Masonic Building. Down on Bond Street was the restaurant; you came in off of Bond Street and so, yea…
DW A lot of changes.
HH A lot of changes.
DW And we always like to talk about changes. Good and bad.
HH Yea. We had one doctor, Dr. Palmer, who was a kind doctor. We had Dr. Palmer, had Dr. Hudson. And going back to Fountain Green, of course, we had Fountain Green Hospital, which was owned and operated by Dr. Hudson. My oldest niece was born in that hospital.
DW It's where the RiteAid is now.
HH Right, right.
DW Mmm hmm, that's nice.
HH And, of course, you had, when they called it "Churchville", whoever named it Churchville certainly did name it right because there's about 18 to 20 churches on Churchville Road…if you'll count them.
DW Hmm.
HH So, I don't know if it, well, it may have got its name from Churchville Road because we had a lot of churches up on Churchville Road now.
DW Well, what kind of changes have you seen in the county that, well, let's start with, haven't been for the better?
HH Well, ok, I think the fallacy of maybe Harford County and in most counties is that there's a lot of politics. There's a lot of politics in everything – churches, county business, whatever it may be. But I think the fallacy that I've seen is that they have allowed a lot of growth without the, well, they may have been aware of it, but they didn't plan for roads, they didn't plan for water and sewerage, and they didn't plan for some utilities. They okayed the building. The things went up and all of a sudden they say, "Oh, we need to widen the road." Well, when they were trying to widen Churchville Road, they had I don't know how many meetings and 300 or 400 people would show up; and basically if somebody had been looking to …before they allowed all the housing development to go in, they would have said, "Hey, let's put the road, put Churchville Road back through there." But you can't now because it's already housing. So I think the growth, I mean I think if you progress you're gonna have growth. But I think if we could have thought about the utilities and the multitude of people, we find that, you know, they build a new road, they build a new school, they build a new office building and before they're finished, they're out of date. So some where in, possibly, the planning could have been maybe a little bit better. I don't know if I could have done any better but it would, it looks like that. But Bel Air is a great town, it still has a little bit of its uniqueness, but Bel Air growing up and as a young adult, as a young man, it was a very unique little town. You know, on Saturday nights, on the Boyd & Fulford side and on down that way, I mean you couldn't walk. It was wall-to-wall people. It was like that for years because you came to Bel Air once a week, you did your shopping, you did your gossiping, you did your visiting, you went to the movie, you went and played pool, and all these things, you know. I guess one of the things that stands out in my mind, Mr. Grover Grier, who had a milk distributing and was kind of a wealthy man. I graduated with one of his sons, Nick Grier. And I always looked at him, and I said, "Now this is a man who arrived." Every morning he got shaved down at Monty's Barber Shop and he had breakfast at the restaurant there on Main Street. Now I thought, now there is "success". And today, – you know, that has stuck out in my mind. I told his family, I did the funeral for his family, but that was the height of success, when you could get shaved every morning, didn't have to shave yourself, and you could eat breakfast. Now that was success, and that's always stuck with me, you know.
DW Mmm hmm.
HH But I go back to Mr. Rosenberg. He was a really…I guess, a mentor to me because he was just very fair. If he hadn't died at 57, if he would have continued, I more than likely would never have been involved in a church because I would never left the store, because he was just such a gentleman. He was an upstairs operator. He had a brother who was a basement operator – buy it for a dollar, sell it for a dollar ten, don't care if your customers come back; where Mr. Rosenberg believed in quality and service. And I guess another thing that I'm greatly disappointed by, being a salesman for 28 years, was, for instance…you don't have it today: There's no loyalty, there's no loyalty today. There's no service today and that was one thing that I grew up with in the era I grew up was quality, service, and treat your fellowman the way you'd like to be treated. And, I'm not putting our young people down, I'm not doing that, but basically you have children running businesses or you have children in management and there's no loyalty. I mean, I think that is one of the biggest things I see in my life and life today. There's no loyalty. In other words, why did I buy a Ford? My father had a Ford. Why did I always shop at this, stop and get gas at this place? Because that's what you did. You became a customer, and I saw that in the store. The latter, you know, I waited on Mom and Dad, I waited on the children, and before I left, I started waiting on the grandchildren. And Mom and Dad had loyalty; the children had some loyalty; the grandchildren? It didn't make any difference. I would have people call me and say, "Harold, I'm sending my son in." This was the latter part of when things were starting to change. "I want you to pick out a hundred dollars' worth of clothes for him." And I never saw them, you know. Then the Mom and dad would call and say, "Harold, I can't believe that you sold my kids the clothes that they brought home." And I would say, hypothetically, "Mr. Jones, they didn't come in," because they went and bought some mod clothes because they didn't want me, they didn't want to be related with me because I was their mom and dad's salesman or their brother's and sister's, you know. And I'd say, "But they didn't come in. I never saw them." [Laughter] But that's the biggest change I think is loyalty, growth which I think, you know, lovely restaurants and things, but they built and weren't prepared for some of the things that's being overridden by demands.
DW How about changes for the better?
HH Well, I think we plan better. I think we've got better government. I think we've got more things available, I mean for our seniors, senior adults, there's a lot of things out there. The underprivileged families, there's means for them now. So, medicine. Of course, if I might share a personal thing. I had my gall bladder out three weeks ago. I climbed on the operating table at 3:05; at 4:20 I'm in the recovery; 5:30, I'm on my way home. And I was down about two days, and so we've seen a tremendous amount of … in medicine. So I'm not against progress. I think we need that, but I think with that progress we need to say now, "Ok, we're going to be here but when we get there, is it going to be still needed?" Oh no, it's all out of date; we think we should already have been already over here. So, I think Bel Air's, I'm very proud. I've been not all over the world but I've been pretty much over the United States, and I can't find a better place than living in Bel Air. I wouldn't even consider….People say' "Where do you want to retire?" I'm going to retire on Moore's Mill Road. [Laughter] Hopefully, I can retire there and we got the facilities for the hospitals and we have Upper Chesapeake. We are very fortunate. And I guess one of the greatest things living in Harford County, Maryland, is the quality…you know, you've got Johns Hopkins, you've got all these well-known hospitals. And the great thing living in Harford County is that if you like the seashore, two hours you can be at the seashore. If you like the mountains, two hours and you can be in the mountains. If you want big city life, three hours and you can be in New York City. You can be in Baltimore in 40 minutes; you can be in DC in an hour and a half or you can be in Philadelphia. So, we're very centrally located. That's why, if you look at Harford County, unbeknownst to our forefathers, Oak Grove is in the center of Harford County. That's one reason why we have the college, we have the special school, and we have the Harford Technical School because they pull from Harford County. So we've gone a long ways, and I'm just happy that I'm living here in Harford County and have no dreams about leaving.
DW [Laughter] Well great. Well, anything else you'd like to cover?
HH No, I'm just very honored and thankful that I was nominated by Ms. Roni. It was a very high honor. And someone said to me… they just gave me a 30 year celebration and she read that at my 30-year party. I just spent 30 years here at Oak Grove and someone said, "Well, you ready for another 25?" And I said, "Well, I'd like 10 more years serving my church and community and then the next 15, I'd like to sit back and relax." So, I'm 72, just turned 72 on June 5; good health all my life; high energy; the Lord's given me high energy, and I just hope He allows me to have that until He's ready for me. So I just want to thank you for taking the time to interview, and maybe I've jumped around a lot, but that's kind of my life. I just kind of jumped around, you know, and been a manager – we had a store in Aberdeen – I managed that and we come to Bel Air. So I've had a lot of opportunities and I really have enjoyed the Chaplaincy. Of course, here, I'm Reverend Harold Hubble. I'm Chaplain. One good thing about being a chaplain, you don't get involved in denominations. You're just a chaplain and can minister to anybody. And then, of course, I'm very – I forgot to say that – I'm very involved in the Upper Chesapeake Medical Center. I'm a chaplain and I'm on call every weekend at Upper Chesapeake, which includes here in Bel Air and at Harford – Havre de Grace, and then I serve as chaplain at GBMC and St. Joseph's. I have badges for Johns Hopkins, St. Joe's, Franklin Square, Union Memorial, Good Samaritan, and that gives me the privilege of being able to go in any time or day and minister to…. And being a church of our size, is that we can have four or five people in five different hospitals and one of my ministries is, we've always did a practice for the 30 years I've been on staff, is that if a person is having surgery, I go down prior to that surgery. Many, many times, I've been in a Baltimore hospital at 5 in the morning getting ready to have prayer with somebody going out for some type of surgery. So, I love people, and I get along pretty good with people, but I do think if you treat people the way you like to be treated, you won't have any trouble the rest of your life. And I'm sure I've not always done that, but my goal is to do that and I work hard. So that's kind of where I am.
DW Very good.
HH Ok. Hopefully, you can get something out of this.
DW [Laughter] Well, thank you on behalf of the citizens of Harford County. This is a story that they'll be wiling to listen to for many years. Thank you, sir.
HH Thank you, sir! Appreciate it.

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Transcript

Interviewee: Harold L. Hubble (HH)
Interviewer: Doug Washburn (DW)
Hello, this is Doug Washburn for the Harford County Public Library. Today is 16 June 2004, and I am with the Harford Living Treasure, Harold Hubble of Bel Air, the Chaplain at the Oak Grove Baptist Church in Fountain Green where we are doing our taping today. Chaplain Hubble has been very active and is still very active in the Harford County community. Veronica Chenowith of the Harford County Council made the nomination.
DW Chaplain Hubble, welcome.
HH Thank you.
DW Well, we always like to start at the beginning. Where were you born and when?
HH I was born on June 5, 1932, in Darlington, Maryland. My parents came up from Virginia during the late '30s because of depression of jobs. Moved to Maryland in 1932. I was born in Darlington, as I said, and then they moved back for a year and then came back, I guess the latter part of, early part of 1933, and have been in Maryland all our lives since then. I grew up on a farm, my father was a farmer. Grew up in Bel Air on Maulsby Street when I was about four to five. My father worked for Central Motors at that time, which is now Plaza Ford. And then we moved to Glenville on a cattle farm that was owned by Mr. and Mrs. James Whitalll. He was the farm manager there and managed all the raising of crops and everything. We moved there when I was about five and a half. That following fall I began school at the Churchville Elementary. I attended there from first grade through the seventh grade. Prior to that, I guess I've been working ever since I was in the third grade. I used to pull a lot of, thin a lot of corn for my father and pull a lot of yellow top – is what grew up in the alfalfa. We pulled the yellow top out so it would be more pure. Then, of course, during the second World War, most of the men had gone for the service and there was Mr. Joseph Butt who had a canning house there in Glenville, Maryland, and he raised asparagus and green beans and peaches and tomatoes and because there was no help – if you know anything about asparagus – you cut it completely down the day, the next day it's up ready again. It grows all over night. But I would go up there – me and another few of the fellas that grew up in, around Glenville. We'd go up there at daybreak and we would cut till about eight o'clock. We'd cut about two, two and a half hours and then he would, we'd all pile in his farm truck just like we were. I'm sure we smelled good. [Laughter] Then attended, went to, as I was in third grade at that time because I was about nine, and we did that for, until the asparagus would get over and then I picked many, many pounds of beans. I would get, I believe, about three cents a pound for beans, and then he would go into Baltimore and bring out a lot of the, I guess you'd call them migrant workers then, and of course, they would pick fields; but he hired a lot of us young kids around the area. And then once the beans got out, then we'd pick peaches. Now I got, I think I got, thirteen cents a basket. And I would decide [Laughter] how much money I wanted to make that day because I would pick from the beginning and get my quota of what money I wanted; and I wouldn't eat a peach because once I started eating one, I think I would eat one and pick one, eat one, pick one. So I did that all through my elementary grades. He was just really a fine guy. So I attended Churchville from first grade to seventh grade. The principal was Tom Hackett. My first grade teacher was a Mrs. Tharpe. Then after I graduated from Churchville – they had a little graduation, you know. White pants, white shirts, you know – then I started going to Bel Air High School. We only had basically three schools. We had Bel Air High School, Havre de Grace High School, Aberdeen High School. Then we had Central Consolidated, which was a high school for black people. So the bus would pick us up, the elementary bus would pick us up and take us to Churchville school; and then a Mr. Mark Hopkins who owned buses would come and pick us up at Churchville, take us to Bel Air High School, and then after school was over he would take us back to Churchville. We'd get a bus from Churchville Elementary to take us to our respective homes. And I was the last eleven-year system, 1949, and in 1950, I guess they had maybe ten or twelve people who either had got set back a year or didn't, or failed a year, and so 1951 was the first graduating class. I went to the Bel Air High School, which is torn down now and is where the Bel Air Elementary School is now on – in Bel Air, I can't think of the street, there's a [missing dialogue] there…
DW Lee Street?
HH No, no. Lee Street, well, Lee Street is the one going up there by the…the one down by, comes out from the Police Department.
DW That's Lee.
HH Lee Street.
DW That's Lee.
HH And they tore that school down. In 1950, the people started going to Bel Air High School, and that was when they used the Knightly School there for a while and then they finally tore it down and built the existing Bel Air Elementary School.
I started, that was my account as I was growing up. And then 1947, I was fourteen and I started working for The Hub Department Store in Bel Air, which was owned by a Jewish family, the Rosenberg family, and worked there after – I would go in after school on Friday, and I would work from two to nine and then I stayed all night. My sister lived in Bel Air. She married into the Reedy's, Hayden Reedy, who now the place is Major's Choice and his daddy owned Major's Choice and farmed it until – I'm not sure when Major's Choice was built. Anyway, I would stay all night with my sister and then work – go in at nine and I could only work till seven because until you were sixteen you couldn't work after seven o'clock. So, I did that until I became sixteen – graduated. I was 16 on June 5, and we graduated June 7. So I was just, had just turned 16. Started as a stock boy, washing windows, sweeping the sidewalks. Mr. Rosenberg had a couple of apartment complexes. One was known as the Chesney Building, which Clark Turner remoldeled, and then the other was called the Germantown. I would go over and clean the halls, and so I did that all the time I was working part time. Then the farm where my father worked was sold to Peter Jay whose son still owns – it was called Windmill Hill there at Glenville – and Mr. Jay raised and bred racehorses and he offered me a job to be a jockey because I was fairly small then. But I was working at The Hub and I thought maybe that wasn't what I wanted to do for my life. So I told him I appreciated the offer, but I was staying at The Hub. So I stayed at The Hub and got started as a stock boy, began working on the floor as a salesman, and I resigned in 1974 as a manager and buyer of men's and boys' clothing. So I went from sweeping floors to management and in 1974, I resigned.
To back up now, to kind of my boyhood, my young adulthood, of course, at that time Route 22 was really just a two lane road, and I'm not sure exactly when they widened Churchville Road. I know I was out of school, so it had to be 1950 – 51. I'm not sure on that because I know we used to have to run around by Creswell – Carsins Run – Creswell! and come into Bel Air that way. And I saw houses that were facing the road turned. We have one now still down there that was turned sideways so the road could go through. And growing up as an elementary young man, I mean we had snows that would come the last of October, November; the snow would stay on. You never saw the ground really till about March when it would start to warm up. You never had a road salted, so we could sled on the main road because it would be packed just like a hard rock, you know. So we used to sleigh ride on the road because there was really not a lot of traffic. [Laughter] So that's kind of what we did. And then, of course, 19--, I believe 1958, was when we had the really large snow and I was back in…
DW Glenville.
HH And Gene Umbarger – we graduated together – and stayed friends, he came over on a, I believe, a Farm All tractor through the fields and picked me up and took me to Churchville because the roads were open from Bel Air to Churchville. And my brother John, who was also employed at The Hub, picked me up and then worked all the time while school was out and everything. So, you know, I remember the roads back in Glenville, they would just fill completely full. There would be eight or ten foot drifts and they'd be like that maybe a week or ten days before they ever got snow plows in there. [Laughter] So, we got a lot of snow, a lot of fun.
Grew up. Did a lot of fishing. My father, we used to go down to Rock Run, and that's when they would dip for herring and it was nothing for us to dip a thousand fifteen herrings in one night. Of course, fish don't run like that anymore. There would be a multitude of people dipping so we would catch a thousand. I mean, they were just, you know, you could almost walk on them. So I did a lot of fishing growing up as a young fella. My father, we used to go up to, he'd take me up to Dover, Delaware, and Lewes, Delaware, and we'd go out deep sea fishing and that was when you could go for all day for about $65. Now I think it's three hundred and some dollars per three hours. So the change…and remembering gas prices since we – it certainly is prevalent on our mind today. Many times, my father, we'd stop there at Churchville at the little Sunoco station owned by Kyle Andrews and you bought five gallons for a dollar. And you could buy that all day long, you know. And then, of course, during the war, nylon stockings were scarce, sugar was scarce, and, of course, you had a little sticker on your car like A, P, B, C, I believe, and if you were a farmer, I think you got C. You got a little more gas because of being a farmer, but the average person just got an A sticker and they were allotted so much gas per month, I believe. So, my daddy, we had a '39 Ford and we came to Bel Air once a week. I went to the movies for about 13 cents or 25 cents a ticket. My mom did her grocery shopping. They saw their friends and that was a yearly thing and a weekly, yearly thing that we went to Bel Air once a week. They used to have there at the Bel Air Theater now, which is still there, the building is still there, but they used to have "serials", they used to call them. They were like western serials, you know, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hop-a-long Cassidy, and they would have a movie on Monday night but the serial would be continued. And my daddy took me every Monday night to the movies to…there was always usually a western but they always had a serial. So I look back and they were just some of the nice memories. At that time, because of segregation, our black friends had to go down the alley, up the steps, and sit in the balcony. They couldn't sit with us, you know, I look back now and I thought that was so unfair, but that was what we were used to.
My mother – Mr. Whitall had a maid whose name was Alberta Presbury and they got to be good friends. She would come over and they'd visit with each other; and I tell this, it's kind of funny because I was only about six or seven, and they used to call Brazil nuts "nigger toes." So, I'm there and I came out on the porch where my mom and Ms. Presbury were sitting and I said, "Hey, Mom, can I have some, can I have a nigger toe?" Well, my mother could have went through the crack if there'd been a crack there. Alberta was a very kind and very beautiful black lady and she said, "Ms. Hubble, that's ok. I know it was no put-down." It was just something that we did, you know. And mostly, we didn't have all the fast food restaurants. We had Reuben's Drive-In, which was THE place. Reuben Leftridge, who was a very active member here at the Oak Grove Baptist Church, he and Virginia. But that was where you took your dates and he was famous for the suzy-q, which was the potato he should have patented – he never did – and thick chocolate milkshakes. He had a drive-in before – you see sometimes in movies of the fifties – where the gals were on roller skates, and they did that at Reuben's. So that was kind of our, the only recreation that we really had was Reuben's Drive-In. That's where we met and took our dates, and for less than a dollar you could eat, two of you, and with a hamburger and milkshake and suzy-q's. And then they had Johnny's Roller Skating Rink up at Poplar Grove. I got my first car when I was sixteen, bought my first car. It was a 1949 Ford, paid $2400 for it. At that time you had to pay a third down, and I had saved $800 for my third down and that was my first car, a four-door Ford that I bought myself. I've always said that …and I had friends who would, you know, had an old car and then they would step up and then get a little better car and then finally get a new car. And I've always said I don't think I ever appreciated a new car because I bought a new car, the first car I owned was a new car. I think that takes away from it. I mean, I enjoyed my car.
I never grew up in church. My mother was a Christian, went to church back down in the south. The only time my father went to church, I guess, down there was when, that's kind of where you found your girls and dated the girls, you know. But my mom said she really would like to go to church, and so I got my new car in '49 and just stopped by Oak Grove Baptist Church and started attending Oak Grove. Became the first ordained deacon who was single. They had never ordained a single man, and I was ordained as a single man and served active to 1974. And I'll tell you about that. It's kind of where I changed my life vocation. So I was very involved in church and I worked six nights at the store, I mean six days and three nights; and then of course, I was involved in church. Held every committee chair position in a Baptist church and that's quite a few different committees. Then in 1974, we had two daughters. My wife is named Gerry and our daughters, Karen and Alana. I was working about 56 hours a week, a tax assessor came opening, and I applied for a tax assessor under the County Executive Anderson, Charles Anderson. I took my test and they hired about four or five tax assessors, and passed the test and everything but did not get the job. Well, while this was happening, my Pastor, Reverend Lewis McDonald, came into the store and I said, "I would like for you to pray something with me about – the Lord may want me to die here at the church but I feel like that I might work as tax assessor, so he said, "Do you mean …", (I was 42 then.) He said, "Do you mean you would leave The Hub store?" I said, "Yea, but maybe I'm not supposed to but this is what I've done." He said, "Well, for a long time I thought of a position and your name has come to me many, many times and the title is Minister of Lay Evangelism, Church Administrator." And I said to him, I said, "Well, gee, it's really a compliment," but I mean, I didn't have college, or any seminary training. And he said, "Basically, what you would be doing, you have the skills and you have people relationship." And so we started talking about it, and the week before the pastor was to bring my name to the church, Mr. Anderson called and said, "Harold, we're going to hire one more tax assessor. I know you applied, but I need to know by the next morning if you want the position." Well, I was kind of involved and so I called my Pastor. Gerry, my wife, and I went out and told him what happened and he said, "Well, you know I can't tell you, you need to make your own decision. I still think the Lord is leading you into this position." So I called back and I told Mr. Anderson that I really appreciated it but it really was the wrong time to leave the store. We'd been right in the busy season and I was there for 28 years, and I wouldn't have done that to my boss. So I turned him down and so they brought my name – Reverend McDonald shared with the deacons and the personnel committee that he had a position in mind, he had a man in mind, and, of course, they were saying, "Well, who is he? What's his education? What's his background?" And Reverend McDonald said, "Well, I can't share that with you right now because of a situation." So they brought my name the first of March in 1974, the church voted on me; and we had about three hundred that evening – we had about 304, I think. And I had three hundred positive votes. Four people had come to me later that next day and said, "I voted against you but not against you as a person but didn't feel like we needed the position." So I accepted. I came on April Fool's Day, 1974, and I tell them it's been a joke ever since. [Laughter] So that's where I went from the retail business to where I am today.
During the time that I was at The Hub, I was very active in the Chamber of Commerce. I was active in Aberdeen. We had a store in Aberdeen. When I say "we" it was the Rosenberg's. We had a store in Aberdeen, we had one on Main Street in Bel Air plus an Annex, plus they had two stores over in Westminster and got very involved in Chamber of Commerce and the Christmas activities of the season. And just really…I guess, about two years after I decided I would go to The Hub, I also thought maybe I want to go to the Proving Grounds. So I went over and applied for a job at the Proving Grounds and got the job. And I was making $40 a week at The Hub for six days and three nights, 60 plus hours. And I came back, told my boss Mr. Rosenberg that I thought that I was going to quit because I had gotten a job at the Proving Grounds and he said, "Well, what?" I said, "Well, first place it's 38 hours and I'm working 60, you know, and instead of making $40 a week, I was going to make $45 but I was only working about 38 hours, you know." And he said, "Well, I really hate to see you go but I would never, you know, hold anybody back. I'll give you a ten dollar raise." So he told me he would give me $50 if I chose to stay. Went home, talked to my parents, and my parents said, "Harold, this is one time you're going to have to make your own decision. If we tell you to go and you dread going to the Proving Ground, then you'll say, 'See? If you hadn't told me I wouldn't have taken that job,' and if we tell you to stay at The Hub, and you become miserable and you'd say, 'Well, if you hadn't done that…'" So the moral of the story, I chose to stay in the retail business and do not regret it because I learned a lot, I grew a lot, was given a lot of opportunity. Mr. Rosenberg was a fine, Jewish man, very religious in his own faith, and was a gentleman from the word "go." And I learned early in that lifestyle and I try to do that to this day, that if you treat people the way you like to be treated, you won't have much trouble in life. And I have always tried to treat people the way I want to be. I don't like to be treated rudely, so I don't treat people rudely. So that's kind of in my work relationship.
I was on a lot of different committees in the Southern Baptist Church. We're the largest protestant denomination in the world. But I got very active in, I was on the Board of Directors for Baptist Home of Maryland, I was on the Board for the Commission on Aging here in Bel Air when the committees at that time kind of had a little bit, a little clout. They kind of, you know, had a little money in the purse and…later the committees became advisory committees and basically took all the power as far as we had. At the Commission on Aging, we had a little budget and we could kind of fire and hire and spend that money. But we didn't know how to write contracts so…Habern Freeman, and he made all these committees we have today advisory committees. Basically, they really don't have any clout far as – all we do is advisory. I served as advisory on the committee of John Archer; and like I said, I was on Commission on Aging for two or three terms and really just got involved in my church my lifestyle with the items that I do.
Then in 19…., Bob Coomes was the Sheriff of Harford County and he brought on four chaplains, and he asked me to be on of the chaplains for the Harford County Sheriff's office, which I serve today. And basically, I worked with all people. I do death notifications, and sometimes if there are suicides, or unattended deaths, they call me out. And then, I really enjoyed the chaplaincy. At that time the Bel Air Police Department did not have a chaplain, and I came and was the first chaplain for the Bel Air Police Department. Also, the EOC (which is 9-1-1), never had a chaplain and at that time, Jim Terrell was the director of the EOC, and he asked me if I would be a lead chaplain for that so, this is my work… and they all kind of tie together. It's been a great ministry because, basically, when you go to an unattended death or suicide or hospital visit in these different areas, there are hurting people. And so, the Lord really has given me an opportunity to minister to hurting people. And I think, if I have a gift, it is people. I am very comfortable. I'm sure I don't always use the right English, but I can feel just as comfortable sitting with the hierarchy of a big business as a homeless person. I am not intimidated like that, and I feel very comfortable being able to talk to people like that. I do a lot of funerals. Last year I had 96 funerals because dealing with the older people and then of course, being born and raised in Harford County, I know so many people. Being at The Hub Store for 28 years, you just get to know a lot of people and, even if you don't know them, they know you. I would say that I'll do 50 percent of my funerals outside the walls of our church. But I would say that 98 percent of those funerals, when I got there, they knew me or I knew them, somehow. So it's really been a very blessed ministry.
I began the first Senior Adult Ministry in the Maryland-Delaware Convention before books were ever written. I started two groups. One was called "The Keenagers." We'd meet monthly and we've done all types of trips. And then I realized that we were having a lot of widows and I started another group called the Pacesetters. It would run between 60 and 70 women here that are all widows and from about 16 or 17 different churches. Most everybody that comes has their own spiritual walk. It may be Methodist, it may be Mormon, it could be Jehovah Witness, it can be Catholic, but they don't have that type of support. And with that group we do a monthly trip. Usually, the third Saturday we go somewhere. I do a major trip with the seniors. I've been to Alaska, Nashville, Hawaii, Branson. I'm doing a trip to Branson in November. We'll be taking about 57…and it's really a ministry because I've taken people who are in wheelchairs, or taken people who would never, never go on a trip like this because they would be afraid to do it by themselves. And I coordinate everything. All they have to be is on time. [Laughter] So, I'm doing Branson in November. In 2005, I'll be taking a group to Hawaii. I've done that; I've been to Hawaii about eight times. A lovely place to go. I love Hawaii. So, in my work on staff here, I became a consultant for Senior Adult Ministry for the Southern Baptist Convention, which is nationwide. I've led conferences all up and down the seaboard, about eight or ten different states – in other words, how to start a Senior Adult Ministry. I go to some of the conventions or associations or a local church. Year before last, I was down in Louisiana for five days, and I went to five different churches sharing how to start a senior adult ministry in the church. What we're having now is, for instance, because of baby boomers coming of age, things that we did twenty years ago with seniors, well, it's just not fitting for boomers today, so we have to change our activities. Just last week, we had thirty some, I'd say, boomers, went on a golfing outing for the day. So we're apt to change some of our activities to reach the younger generation.
DW Excellent, excellent. Let me back you up a little bit.
HH Ok. I know I kinda wandered but it's…
DW That's fine. That's a real good talk of your life. Actually, let's flip the tape over.
HH Ok.
DW Ok.
End of Side One
DW So, like I talked to you at the beginning, we do like to concentrate on the Harford County history. How about old Churchville? Do you remember anything other than working at the cannery?
HH Well…
DW Some of the old stores there….
HH In Glenville, we had a store right down at the end of Glenville Road, and it was owned by a Mr. and Mrs. Reese. And there was an older couple who ran that store. And for recreation, there'd be about eight or ten of us boys. We were on bicycles, and we would go down there and buy our candy but we were always scared to death because they were old [Laughter] at that time. So we were always kind of scared to go in there because we were afraid they were gonna do something to us. But you know what's interesting as an eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve year old boy riding bicycles, we rode all over Harkins, Glenville, and Level and Deer Creek, but what was so interesting is that as a boy, as a child, hills, like going down Glenville hill, was, I mean it was such a big hill. And now, it's not that big. I remember my first grade teacher, Mrs. Tharpe, and I thought she was, just she was a tall woman, you know, and such a, of course, then you know you're small and I met her about 25 years later, and hadn't seen her for about 25 or 30 years and I looked at her, you know, she wasn't so big. [Laughter] But that's how you see it as a child. Glenville, so that was kind of Glenville. There was no, you go back now there's umpteen different type of houses, but essentially Glenville had three post offices – our post office, Havre de Grace, then down at Glenville and one out at Deer Creek, the road there by Deer Creek was Aberdeen, and then we had Churchville. Within a three mile radius we had about three different post offices. And of course, it was all rural delivered. Tell a funny thing about postmen. Working at The Hub, we put out about two circulars a year, not like we do today, and we never got a circular from the store. And I said, "Mr. Rosenberg, I don't understand it," because I used to take them up to mail at the Bel Air post office. So I told Mr. Rosenberg and so he called the Havre de Grace postmaster and said, "You know, one of my employees works here and he lives down at Glenville and we do about two circulars. He never gets a circular. What's going on?" Come to find out was, if we had first class mail, we'd get a circular. The postman would stop. But if we didn't have first class mail, he drove on by. [Laughter] So after that, we got everything. They used to do that. In other words, if you didn't have because, you know, it was on time, so if it was all second and third class mail, he just went on by. At that time you didn't get a lot of bills and things like we do today. [Laughter] So that was interesting. And then, Churchville, of course, where the Enroy store is now, there was a building and Vonley Day was a barber and was right in the Y and that's where I used to come and get my hair cut. You had the creamery up 136, just up from Churchville Presbyterian Church where the farmers used to, there'd be people who would pick up the cans at the end of your lane and then they would take all those cans up to the creamery and they would whatever they do at a creamery is the process of milk and make butter, you know. So I remember that and then, of course, where the Crown, maybe it's a Crown station, was an apartment house; was owned by Mrs. O. M. Richardson. And she was a very active member in our church. Then you had Cole's Store there where the farm equipment store is there but you went in, it was like a hardware store. They sold all types of items for a farm and of course, there was saddle shop in there but now I'm not sure what's in there. So that was there and then, we had where the High's store is now was a, right between the Presbyterian church where they had there like a day building like a for day school, there was a big ole house there and that's where the Church Operator, telephone operator … was interesting back then you never heard of private lines. You would have a line and there would be ten or twelve families on this one line, and if you picked up and was talking, more than likely, eleven other people were listening to the conversation. So that's kind of what we grew up with. Remember we didn't get a TV, I guess I was thirteen or fourteen when we got our first TV. And it was a Muntz TV, and it was a used one and had a little ten-inch screen, but that was the thing, you know, to watch TV. So we went from the ten-inch to what we have today. Then Chur… go ahead, sir.
DW Well, I was going to say, I know I always heard that the 155 from Churchville to Havre de Grace was always the first paved road in the county. Do you remember that?
HH Ok. It was always, since I have known, it was a paved road. Even Glenville was a paved road when we moved there in '39; but they were very narrow and, of course, like I said, Route 22 was just a little two lane with a stripe in the middle with a tar and chip road. And, of course, like Glenville, I think every year they would tar and chip the road, you know. [Laughter] And they just did the bumps, [Laughter] each bump got a little bigger, you know. It never was really smooth like it is today. So, that and then we had Cole's store, and Mr. … can't remember, had a garage just down from 136, off of 22, but that was kind of Churchville. I mean, I know that many times a friend of mine would, there was a guy, a gentleman, that worked with Harford Mutual and in our senior year he had a little sports car, and he would pick us up every morning and take us to Bel Air High School which was on Gordon Street. And we did that for years. But that's kind of what we, you know, and our activities of recreation was skating, and going to the movies once in a while, and of course, the Bel Air Drive-In, I mean the Churchville Drive-In, which is still the only one I think now left in the state of Maryland, I believe. I remember that was built and then, of course, we had a drive-in in Aberdeen where the McDonald's is about now. There was a curvy road and the drive-in sat up on the hill there. So I remember when that was there and of course, it was torn down and then, of course, Churchville Drive-In is still active.
DW Three M or something, it's called. Yea.
HH Yea.
DW How about, well, you worked in Bel Air a lot of years. Richardson's Drugstore…?
HH Ok. Yea. I worked and I remember when working at the store we had the jail. The house was across from where the Courthouse is and had a yard and they had park benches and that's where everybody sat on Saturday getting all their information and Sheriff Fulker was the Sheriff at that time, had three deputies, himself …The jail was behind the house.
DW Now this is across the road from the courthouse.
HH Where First Virginia Bank is. That part in there. Across from the courthouse where the, basically, the office where the Sheriff is. If you're going south on Main Street, it's on the left, across and then, of course, there was a big white house there, and that's where Sheriff and Mrs. Fulker lived. She cooked for the inmates and they had three deputies: Deputy James, Carr, and Sheriff Fulker. They wore plain clothes, I mean, they didn't even… I remember he died, Sheriff Fulker died very suddenly and I remember that was traumatic because he had been sheriff for some time. That's when Sheriff Kunkel who worked nights as a deputy and he became sheriff and was sheriff for quite a few years. And, of course, we've had our changes in sheriff, but had the jail there right in behind the house where they have some of their office now. The Courthouse had always basically been there. Across down from the Courthouse going south on Main Street, the opposite way, which is one-way now, you had Courtland Hardware…
DW Right.
HH and that's there between Courtland Street and the office building and Bond Boarman's. Boyd & Fulford's was there and, of course, Gene Street worked there and then finally became the owner, and they had a fountain there where you could go and get your sandwich and get your chocolate cokes and cherry cokes…
DW Spirit's still there but the fountain's gone…[Laughter]
HH …but the fountain's gone. And then of course, Richardson's Drugstore down where now it's foot doctors in there. Of course, that had a fountain, and then at Woolworth's where the …
DW Surveyors.
HH …the surveyors are, that was Woolworth and they had a fountain in there. And a salesman would come to call upon a store and would want to know where can we eat. Well, you had a five and ten, we had no motels, and it was really, the closest motel was down around Edgewood. There was one in Kingsville. So we never had the…so salesmen would always want to take you out to eat, you know, so we'd go to Woolworth's for our lunch, because there just wasn't any restaurants.
DW Now you were talking about Reuben's earlier. Now Del Haven was right there. Was that gone by then?
HH No. Del Haven had the cabins there and had the pool, and then right across a little creek was Reuben's Drive-In. And John Wilson who is still living, who owns Del Plaza, operated the Del Haven Restaurant. Oh, I ate in there many, many times. So that was that place, and Reuben's, and then on up was Brownie's who opened Brownie's Log Cabin which is now… used to be Friar Tuck's. I don't know who's in there now. So Main Street is really…I remember on Pennsylvania right there where used to be Bata Shoe Company. You would go around and walk down the sidewalk and was Magness Meat Market, who's son was Town Manager, worked for the Town. And then on past that was Kroh's where the Stinchcomb brothers owned that; and then of course we had the Odd Fellows Hall, which is still there. And then most of the houses – and then I remember Kenmore Inn, A Yew Tree Inn. Yew Tree was up at where Harford Mutual is now, I believe, and Kenmore Inn was down where the pub is. It used to be Safeway in that area right across from the…
DW Looney's.
HH Looney's, right. So, that was your two inns and then where the bank, Forest Hill Bank is, up across from the post office, there was a couple of ladies had, I forget their name, but they had boarding houses where you could go and rent a room and they fed you, I mean supplied the meals for you. So, all that's gone now, you know. Of course, you've got the banks and, of course, remember the Bel Air post office for years, and then they remodeled the Bel Air post office and then moved it down in back of the mall.
DW That's now the Historical Society.
HH Historical Society, right.
DW Now was, wasn't there an old hotel…
HH Vaughn Hotel and this was when we had the fire in Bel Air. They had the Vaughn Hotel, they had Mike Smithson's Barber Shop under it, and then they had what they called "The Hole," which was a poolroom. It was called The Hole, that's where it was.
DW Well, that was Preston's Stationary.
HH Right. Preston's on the corner…Vaughn Hotel was on top, right down from Preston's was Mike Smithson's Barber Shop, who later Monty Hudler took over, and then they had The Hole, they had the restaurant, had a little A & P, had Boyd & Fulford's, had Walker's 5 & 10, which became The Hub Store, and The Hub was those three buildings there, and right beside was so was the Boyd & Fulford's, Hub – basically three departments in there, Hirsch's Men's Store, which is still here, and Woolworth, Bata Shoe Company, and then you had the street there and it was Richardson's Drug Store, Copple's Shoe Store, and Ryser's Store right beside where the theater is now. And then, of course, across from us was the Carbon-Price Building, which became The Hub Annex which was a … and then beside them was Getz's Department Store, where Legg Mason now is was The Corner Restaurant and then you had Pano's, a little food, hamburger joint – sold beer, and next to that was the Cut Rate Store, and then next to that now it was a private house owned by a couple of ladies. And in back of that was the, they had a feed store, and the man sold eggs where the parking lot is now for the B&B Bank or B&T Bank, whatever it is.
DW Oh, M & T.
HH And that was all a…I can't think of the man's name but it'll come to me. So, and, of course, across there was Motor Sales…
DW Right.
HH Motor Sales and then you had on the corner there, which used to be… finally became C-Mart Store, and then they moved that up to Forest Hill.
DW And that was Polan's before…
HH Right, Polan's.
DW Before it was C-Mart.
HH Good, yes, Polan's, right.
DW Ok. Now was that…but that was Polan's when you were growing up…
HH [missing dialogue]
DW [missing dialogue]
HH Well, and see where, then where the, you had the, American Restaurant and you had Masonic Temple, and that's all torn down and became the Courthouse.
DW The Courthouse.
HH Yea, we had a young fella who was with the DeMolay and they had a recognition and I went over – that used to be the Masonic and then, of course, you had Dr. Little who was a dentist who had his office in that Masonic Building. Down on Bond Street was the restaurant; you came in off of Bond Street and so, yea…
DW A lot of changes.
HH A lot of changes.
DW And we always like to talk about changes. Good and bad.
HH Yea. We had one doctor, Dr. Palmer, who was a kind doctor. We had Dr. Palmer, had Dr. Hudson. And going back to Fountain Green, of course, we had Fountain Green Hospital, which was owned and operated by Dr. Hudson. My oldest niece was born in that hospital.
DW It's where the RiteAid is now.
HH Right, right.
DW Mmm hmm, that's nice.
HH And, of course, you had, when they called it "Churchville", whoever named it Churchville certainly did name it right because there's about 18 to 20 churches on Churchville Road…if you'll count them.
DW Hmm.
HH So, I don't know if it, well, it may have got its name from Churchville Road because we had a lot of churches up on Churchville Road now.
DW Well, what kind of changes have you seen in the county that, well, let's start with, haven't been for the better?
HH Well, ok, I think the fallacy of maybe Harford County and in most counties is that there's a lot of politics. There's a lot of politics in everything – churches, county business, whatever it may be. But I think the fallacy that I've seen is that they have allowed a lot of growth without the, well, they may have been aware of it, but they didn't plan for roads, they didn't plan for water and sewerage, and they didn't plan for some utilities. They okayed the building. The things went up and all of a sudden they say, "Oh, we need to widen the road." Well, when they were trying to widen Churchville Road, they had I don't know how many meetings and 300 or 400 people would show up; and basically if somebody had been looking to …before they allowed all the housing development to go in, they would have said, "Hey, let's put the road, put Churchville Road back through there." But you can't now because it's already housing. So I think the growth, I mean I think if you progress you're gonna have growth. But I think if we could have thought about the utilities and the multitude of people, we find that, you know, they build a new road, they build a new school, they build a new office building and before they're finished, they're out of date. So some where in, possibly, the planning could have been maybe a little bit better. I don't know if I could have done any better but it would, it looks like that. But Bel Air is a great town, it still has a little bit of its uniqueness, but Bel Air growing up and as a young adult, as a young man, it was a very unique little town. You know, on Saturday nights, on the Boyd & Fulford side and on down that way, I mean you couldn't walk. It was wall-to-wall people. It was like that for years because you came to Bel Air once a week, you did your shopping, you did your gossiping, you did your visiting, you went to the movie, you went and played pool, and all these things, you know. I guess one of the things that stands out in my mind, Mr. Grover Grier, who had a milk distributing and was kind of a wealthy man. I graduated with one of his sons, Nick Grier. And I always looked at him, and I said, "Now this is a man who arrived." Every morning he got shaved down at Monty's Barber Shop and he had breakfast at the restaurant there on Main Street. Now I thought, now there is "success". And today, – you know, that has stuck out in my mind. I told his family, I did the funeral for his family, but that was the height of success, when you could get shaved every morning, didn't have to shave yourself, and you could eat breakfast. Now that was success, and that's always stuck with me, you know.
DW Mmm hmm.
HH But I go back to Mr. Rosenberg. He was a really…I guess, a mentor to me because he was just very fair. If he hadn't died at 57, if he would have continued, I more than likely would never have been involved in a church because I would never left the store, because he was just such a gentleman. He was an upstairs operator. He had a brother who was a basement operator – buy it for a dollar, sell it for a dollar ten, don't care if your customers come back; where Mr. Rosenberg believed in quality and service. And I guess another thing that I'm greatly disappointed by, being a salesman for 28 years, was, for instance…you don't have it today: There's no loyalty, there's no loyalty today. There's no service today and that was one thing that I grew up with in the era I grew up was quality, service, and treat your fellowman the way you'd like to be treated. And, I'm not putting our young people down, I'm not doing that, but basically you have children running businesses or you have children in management and there's no loyalty. I mean, I think that is one of the biggest things I see in my life and life today. There's no loyalty. In other words, why did I buy a Ford? My father had a Ford. Why did I always shop at this, stop and get gas at this place? Because that's what you did. You became a customer, and I saw that in the store. The latter, you know, I waited on Mom and Dad, I waited on the children, and before I left, I started waiting on the grandchildren. And Mom and Dad had loyalty; the children had some loyalty; the grandchildren? It didn't make any difference. I would have people call me and say, "Harold, I'm sending my son in." This was the latter part of when things were starting to change. "I want you to pick out a hundred dollars' worth of clothes for him." And I never saw them, you know. Then the Mom and dad would call and say, "Harold, I can't believe that you sold my kids the clothes that they brought home." And I would say, hypothetically, "Mr. Jones, they didn't come in," because they went and bought some mod clothes because they didn't want me, they didn't want to be related with me because I was their mom and dad's salesman or their brother's and sister's, you know. And I'd say, "But they didn't come in. I never saw them." [Laughter] But that's the biggest change I think is loyalty, growth which I think, you know, lovely restaurants and things, but they built and weren't prepared for some of the things that's being overridden by demands.
DW How about changes for the better?
HH Well, I think we plan better. I think we've got better government. I think we've got more things available, I mean for our seniors, senior adults, there's a lot of things out there. The underprivileged families, there's means for them now. So, medicine. Of course, if I might share a personal thing. I had my gall bladder out three weeks ago. I climbed on the operating table at 3:05; at 4:20 I'm in the recovery; 5:30, I'm on my way home. And I was down about two days, and so we've seen a tremendous amount of … in medicine. So I'm not against progress. I think we need that, but I think with that progress we need to say now, "Ok, we're going to be here but when we get there, is it going to be still needed?" Oh no, it's all out of date; we think we should already have been already over here. So, I think Bel Air's, I'm very proud. I've been not all over the world but I've been pretty much over the United States, and I can't find a better place than living in Bel Air. I wouldn't even consider….People say' "Where do you want to retire?" I'm going to retire on Moore's Mill Road. [Laughter] Hopefully, I can retire there and we got the facilities for the hospitals and we have Upper Chesapeake. We are very fortunate. And I guess one of the greatest things living in Harford County, Maryland, is the quality…you know, you've got Johns Hopkins, you've got all these well-known hospitals. And the great thing living in Harford County is that if you like the seashore, two hours you can be at the seashore. If you like the mountains, two hours and you can be in the mountains. If you want big city life, three hours and you can be in New York City. You can be in Baltimore in 40 minutes; you can be in DC in an hour and a half or you can be in Philadelphia. So, we're very centrally located. That's why, if you look at Harford County, unbeknownst to our forefathers, Oak Grove is in the center of Harford County. That's one reason why we have the college, we have the special school, and we have the Harford Technical School because they pull from Harford County. So we've gone a long ways, and I'm just happy that I'm living here in Harford County and have no dreams about leaving.
DW [Laughter] Well great. Well, anything else you'd like to cover?
HH No, I'm just very honored and thankful that I was nominated by Ms. Roni. It was a very high honor. And someone said to me… they just gave me a 30 year celebration and she read that at my 30-year party. I just spent 30 years here at Oak Grove and someone said, "Well, you ready for another 25?" And I said, "Well, I'd like 10 more years serving my church and community and then the next 15, I'd like to sit back and relax." So, I'm 72, just turned 72 on June 5; good health all my life; high energy; the Lord's given me high energy, and I just hope He allows me to have that until He's ready for me. So I just want to thank you for taking the time to interview, and maybe I've jumped around a lot, but that's kind of my life. I just kind of jumped around, you know, and been a manager – we had a store in Aberdeen – I managed that and we come to Bel Air. So I've had a lot of opportunities and I really have enjoyed the Chaplaincy. Of course, here, I'm Reverend Harold Hubble. I'm Chaplain. One good thing about being a chaplain, you don't get involved in denominations. You're just a chaplain and can minister to anybody. And then, of course, I'm very – I forgot to say that – I'm very involved in the Upper Chesapeake Medical Center. I'm a chaplain and I'm on call every weekend at Upper Chesapeake, which includes here in Bel Air and at Harford – Havre de Grace, and then I serve as chaplain at GBMC and St. Joseph's. I have badges for Johns Hopkins, St. Joe's, Franklin Square, Union Memorial, Good Samaritan, and that gives me the privilege of being able to go in any time or day and minister to…. And being a church of our size, is that we can have four or five people in five different hospitals and one of my ministries is, we've always did a practice for the 30 years I've been on staff, is that if a person is having surgery, I go down prior to that surgery. Many, many times, I've been in a Baltimore hospital at 5 in the morning getting ready to have prayer with somebody going out for some type of surgery. So, I love people, and I get along pretty good with people, but I do think if you treat people the way you like to be treated, you won't have any trouble the rest of your life. And I'm sure I've not always done that, but my goal is to do that and I work hard. So that's kind of where I am.
DW Very good.
HH Ok. Hopefully, you can get something out of this.
DW [Laughter] Well, thank you on behalf of the citizens of Harford County. This is a story that they'll be wiling to listen to for many years. Thank you, sir.
HH Thank you, sir! Appreciate it.